Richmond County palliative care patient who spent days on stretcher has died

Cape Breton Post

Published: Apr 14 at 12:11 a.m.

Updated: Apr 14 at 12:16 a.m.

PETIT-DE-GRAT, N.S. — A terminally ill Richmond County man who was recently forced to stay in an emergency room away from his family has died.

Danny Latimer, 66, was diagnosed with incurable cancer last April.

Latimer was taken to the Strait Richmond Hospital on March 29 with suspected pneumonia, where he spent two days on an ER stretcher while his wife Linda was forced to sleep on a couch in another room.

Linda told the Cape Breton Post last week that while her husband’s care was exceptional, she believes government is failing to provide comfort and dignity to end-of-life patients in Richmond County.

She has asked the province to designate around 20 protected beds for palliative care in the Strait region, with accommodations for at least one family member of each patient.

Cape-Breton Richmond MLA Alana Paon told members of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly that Danny Latimer died Thursday morning.

“The last year at least seven palliative patients and their families were forced the (indignity), of spending their last days with their loved ones in the busy ER at the Strait Richmond Hospital,” Paon told the legislature.

Paon questioned the Minister of Health, Randy Delorey, as to whether he thinks it is acceptable to have end-of-life patients spending their final days in a busy emergency room.

She said letters sent to government by the Strait Richmond Palliative Care Society have gone unanswered for two years. The correspondence included a program proposal for palliative care that was sent back in October 2015.

Delorey responded to Paon by rejecting a claim that the Liberal government has done nothing. He instead pointed to a framework that now exists for communities looking to establish their own hospice care supports.